THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

HISTORY BY THE NUMBERS | 2006-05-02

When Napolean invaded Russia people assume that he was not only taking on a much larger country, but a much larger population.

It surprised me to discover that in 1812 the entire population of Russia was much smaller than that of France.

I always wondered why, when I read a history of Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there was so much about France.

The reason is htat there were so many Frenchmen.

In 1800 France had by far the largest population in Europe. There were at least three times as many people in France as in England.

We are used to France being about the same population as the British Isles, and smaller than Germany. We are used to Russia dwarfing all of them.

My feeling for history is STILL out-of-kilter because of the modern numbers I am used to.

COMMENTS (3)

#1 kane | 2006-05-02 17:23

I assumed that. I assumed that he just built up his army along the way. Guess I was wrong.

#2 Tim | 2006-05-02 19:29

I am a young man. I stopped trusting government numbers a long time ago. I wonder if there is any fools in the govt. who even have a clue. They keep saying there is no inflation. LOL. That is the biggest lie since there is no such thing as race. Econ 101---oil is inflation. But to the statisticians in DC--- It depends on what the meaning of the word is IS. Wordism reigns supreme even for economic statisticians. The only thing we have going for us is that every country in the world is being run by wordists.

#3 Antonio Fini | 2006-05-02 22:43

The French population was also racially homogenous. The French soldiers would march into English artillery chanting "Vive la France" as they died. Scared the Bejesus out of the Brits.

They were fighting for a nation of blood and soil. They killed the king, so they definately weren't fighting for the Bourbons. It seems like every European tribe gets one or at the most two shots at greatness. I'll bet it coincides with the size of the native blood related population too. But that's an un-pc thought.